There's only one man in the Big Ten Network footprint who's upset at the recent BTN-Comcast accord, and you get zero guesses as to his name. You didn't even guess, but you're right: Drew Sharp.

If you have a memory longer than two days you remember the minor scare that the BTN would agree to an eight-month preview only to be shuffled off onto a sports tier afterwards. It turns out said scare was caused by 1) sloppy media members not being careful with their words and 2) the exceptional paranoia of yrs truly. You probably remember every one of the hundred articles from every paper from Minnesota to Pennsylvania being very clear that this was not a possibility, that any move would be to a "broadly distributed" digital sports tier that 80% of Comcast subscribers already get.

Sharp either didn't read a single article on the deal or couldn't figure out what "broadly distributed" meant:

The Big Ten finally agreed to an arrangement ensuring that 94% percent of Comcast's subscribers within the eight-state Big Ten footprint would get BTN over an expanded basic cable package that, from Comcast's standpoint, basically amounts to an eight-month "free preview" to the network before Comcast can switch BTN to a special digital sports tier package in those pockets, not including local Big Ten home cities such as like Ann Arbor and East Lansing, where it believes the demand is highest.

This underpins the entirety of what passes for his argument: the Big Ten completely caved and should have done this a year ago. It is completely false. Drew Sharp doesn't even read his own goddamn newspaper:

The BTN and the cable carrier announced a multiyear agreement today that puts programming on expanded basic on Aug. 15 in states with Big Ten schools. After the 2008-09 basketball season ends, Comcast has the option to shift the network to its digital service.

Comcast has about 5 million customers with basic cable and 4 million with digital in Big Ten states.

Sharp's entire column is based on a misunderstanding of the situation that reading 600-word article could have cleared up. He cannot be bothered to even understand the deal before doing his Drew Sharp thing, which is to trash anything that does not win a championship.

And so, the eternal question: why? I'm not asking this in your standard "lolmsm" fashion. I am genuinely puzzled. Every sports fan I've ever come across in this town loathes Sharp. He is inextricably linked with two things: hatred and the Detroit Free Press. Why would the Free Press intentionally antagonize readers that now have a vast multitude of other options? Sharp's a dinosaur from the days when readers had a choice of Paper A or Paper B, the prime numero-uno example of why lazy-ass columnists rage against the internet: it exposes how very much they suck and provides alternative sources of attention.

Every column he writes pisses away more subscriber goodwill and drives consumers to less annoying sources. Even if he gets attention, it's the wrong kind of attention in a hotly competitive media environment.

Update: A Free Press minion has corrected Sharp's error to this...

to the network before Comcast can switch BTN to a digital package, which is more expensive than expanded basis.

...which is a nice try but only makes the column even more transparently nonsensical.

Incoming recruit Michael Shaw saw his high school track career end prematurely when the OSHAA ruled he had transferred to Trotwood-Madison illegally, but dude got it awwwwn at nationals:

Trotwood-Madison OH coach Randy Waggoner, honored earlier in the day as the meet's Coach of the Year, couldn't help blinking back tears at the courage and gutsy efforts of his Waggoner's Raiders team after they toppled favored Dominguez CA in the marquee 4x400 (3:11.33 to 3:11.41).

"I've been coaching since the '60's," Coach Waggoner said of his 46.4 anchor, Mike Shaw, "and I've coached a lot of guys, but he's one of the best."

Shaw had a huge meet for his team from Ohio, anchoring the Raiders to a Friday win in the 4x200 (1:25.18), then taking the 200 title (21.19 in a headwind) and anchoring the 4x400 win on Saturday.

"We all promised each other we were going to lay it on the track for each other," Shaw said. "Last race of the season, and even though I was dead from the 200 [earlier in the day], I told them that if it was close, I'm going to win it."

I was the perfect age to understand George Carlin as the guy who played Rufus in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, -- the greatest thing in the entire world when I was ten -- so the concept of him as, well, this guy...

...was a continual surprise and amazement. He was never the guy trying to be Johnny Cash to me. I saw Carlin once in concert and his act was all about the weird linguistic tics of English with a fair smattering of manners and other assorted pieces of bullshit that float through your adult life. He reminded me of the sort of computer guy who is way into open source and hacking -- hacking like "turn your XBox into a DVR/juicer" -- and can't deal with authority, man, and is very OCD about certain things. He was basically a big dork, which can be the only reason anyone would agree to be Rufus.

When Carlin appeared on "The Dick Cavett Show" shortly after his arrest, he walked out to the sounds of "On, Wisconsin!"

I briefly wondered why Carlin was getting attention that, say, Tim Russert did not and then I remember that he was a word nerd who got off on saying "shit," "piss," and "fuck" in front of people and all was clear.

A mustache adorned by fans of The Ohio State University. Sporting a buckstache often leads one to a life of crime and perversion. The buckstache was made famous by the Michigan Wolverine based blog The M Zone. A cousin to the Buckstache is the Warstache, a mustache worn by Auburn fans. The Warstache will lead one to a life of bestiality.

Paul's life took a turn for the worse when he decided to grow a Buckstache.

Didn't think so.

The MZone was also the first blogspheric victim of Colin Cowherd's douchebaggery; they indirectly set off the very first blowup between the internet and real people and eventually dragged an apology out of Lord Douchebag himself. Also, rumor has it one of the guys at the MZone was the dude in the GEICO "tiny house" commercial. They've accomplished more than you ever will, and now they're dead.

Michigan's summer camp came and went... and nothing happened. There were few notable visitors -- MS DE Josh Boyd and TX WR/DB Dwayne Peace are the only guys with offers -- and no commits. (Schofield attended Michigan's one-day camp a couple weeks ago and was not on campus when he committed.) This is a major break from the Carr days, when the camp was a major event that saw at least a half-dozen offers go out and two or three commits.

What happened?

Recruiting continues to move earlier and earlier, making the summer camp offer considerably later in the process than it used to be.

Rodriguez has had plenty of events over the summer, lessening the focus on the camp. Most prominently, Michigan's one-day senior camp saw a ton of high profile prospects in.

Most believe Carr relied a little too heavily on summer camp as his energy level dropped.

Camp just ain't what it used to be; these days it's more important for juniors and sophomores.

Despite that it was mostly good news this week. Schofield committed unexpectedly and a couple of guys seem like they will drop in the near future. Those gentlemen are PA OL Adam Gress and IN LB Jordan Barnes. Gress is a three-star tackle who picked up an offer at Michigan's one-day senior camp a week or two ago and now says he has two leaders:

He says he now favors West Virginia and Michigan solidly over Penn State and Virginia. Neither the Nittany Lions nor the Cavaliers have offered yet. He plans on going to both their camps this summer, hoping to generate offers.

Gress has one other BCS offer from Rutgers. His opinon of M:

The school that is recruiting Gress the hardest is Michigan. "They offered a few days after camp and since then they've really been recruiting me hard," he said. "(Offensive line) Coach Greg Frey is really cool. He seems like a good all around coach. He's serious on the field, but has a good sense of humor too.

"The tradition at Michigan is great and everything there is just top-notch," he said.

"Coach Rich Rodriguez has a great reputation and I got a chance to speak with him briefly at the camp," he said. "It was only a bit of small talk, but he seemed like a good guy.

"Michigan is a powerhouse to begin with and I think coach Rod will do great."

Gress plans on deciding in a couple weeks after his camps and a visit to WVU. Tentative optimism re: his decision here.

Meanwhile, Rivals has a big headline indicating that Barnes is "ready to decide."($) At last check, Michigan had jumped into the lead($) after offering him; since then he's taken a trip to Alabama. They're the only real competition here (other offers were from Purdue, Oregon, Louisville, and Wisconsin; he hasn't visited any of those places). It's usually a good sign when the Michigan site is breaking an upcoming announce date, and it's better when possibly insane (in a good way) recruiting guy Jim Stefani picks Barnes out of his database and posts his info apropos of nothing. Wink wink nudge nudge. Optimism of a non-tentative variety reigns here. Barnes is a high three-star.

Also meh: GBW may claim NC S DJ Swearinger is "still strong"($) on Michigan, but that's softpedaling a very likely commitment to some SEC team or another, most likely Tennessee:

Swearinger now has 11 scholarship offers. He attended Tennessee's June 12 camp and admits he had to stop himself from committing. "Everything there just felt right," he said. "I actually thought about committing but I really want to take some other visits and see if anybody else could get me to change my mind. Right now I'd say Tennessee's chances are real good. It's like 85 percent."

Don't get your hopes up.

Offensive line items. This blog's been mewling for an OL commit for months; now it looks like Michigan could pick up a bunch of quality linemen in short order. Schofield (who, like, dude...runs the hurdles) committed and Gress won't take long to render a verdict. Meanwhile, are IN OL Zach Martin wants to decide before September and MA OL Brennan Williams keeps saying things like "from the first time I picked up a football I've had Michigan drilled into my head." Williams has an academics-oriented final six schools: M, BC, Maryland, Wake, UVA, and Duke(!). A guy with a lifelong Michigan fandom and that final six is very likely to end up in a winged helmet, IMO.

The above should help resolve the confusion about instate OL Zac Mattias, who committed to Wisconsin before even getting to Michigan's camp. It appears Michigan just
wasn't that interested. His coach:

But as Lloyd Carr's group of coaches stepped out and (Rich) Rodriguez's came in there certainly was a shifting of philosophy and I'm not so sure they were 100% interested in Zac and I'm not sure he was 100% interested in them anymore, which really opened the door for Wisconsin. Zac wants to play power football.

Instate OL Charles Chapman showed well at some camps and seemed like a guy who would camp and earn an offer but skipped out. This implies 1) Chapman felt it wasn't a good use of his time and 2) Michigan is pretty confident in a few of the guys they've offered.

Consider the OL concerns assuaged. Defensive end? Uh...

It was only a matter of time before an enterprising youngster did an end-around past the recruiting sites and used social media to interview recruits. A nascent site named Winged Athletics, currently on a bizarre .tk domain but hopefully moving to Wordpress or blogger soon, has done so, interviewing NC CB Terry Shankle -- not coming -- TX WR Josh Gordon -- really wants to commit but has a major gap between reported ability and offers -- OK CB David Gordon -- will visit -- and others. I'll wait a bit before incorporating the information on Winged Athletics into the board, but I present it to you for your edification.